Quinn Schambow, Libertyville offense keeps rolling against Lake Zurich

LIBERTYVILLE – Lake Zurich had a pack of Bears linebackers on its sideline at Libertyvlle on Friday. Chicago Bears, that is.

Lake Zurich grad Jack Sanborn brought T.J. Edwards, Tremaine Edmunds and a few others out to watch this North Suburban Conference clash, but Libertyville's offense continued to roll up yards and beat the Lake Zurich Bears 29-14.

Senior quarterback Quinn Schambow threw for 309 yards and four touchdowns, while senior running back Steven Strelow piled up 222 yards combined rushing and receiving.

"Those guys are studs out there," Strelow said. "I couldn't run the ball like that without them being able to open up the pass game. When you have the team worrying about pass, the run's going to be wide-open."

Schambow's favorite target, junior Blaise La Vista, scored three touchdowns and hauled in 114 receiving yards. Sophomore Brock Williams had seven catches for 80 yards as the Wildcats stayed unbeaten at 4-0.

Schambow said this group essentially grew up playing together, even La Vista, who is a year younger than the seniors.

"We played baseball, we played all sports together," Schambow said." I've been on teams with them ever since I was a kid. We have a little different offense now than middle school, but we threw it around a little bit. Blaise was the main part of it because he's such a special athlete. I don't think there's a better athlete in the country."

The teams combined for 21 penalties, turning this one into an NSC After Dark type of game that lasted past well 10 p.m.

To start the game, Libertyville used the threat of a long pass to set up short passes and a 60-yard touchdown drive. A 27-yard reception by Strelow set up an 8-yard TD to La Vista.

Lake Zurich (1-3) had a nice drive thwarted by a questionable spot but got the ball right back on an interception by John Howe that bounced off a receiver's hands. But the Bears couldn't get a first down and Libertyville went 94 yards in six plays. The big gain was a 51-yard rainbow from Schambow to La Vista. Sophomore Brock Williams caught a 20-yard TD on the next play after Schambow had a long time to search for a receiver.

LZ came up with a big gain of its own when QB Cole Kenyon went deep for a 47-yard pass to Reece Katzenberger. Howe ran it in from 3 yards out and the Bears were within 13-7. Just before half, though, Schambow found La Vista again for an 11-yard TD pass.

Libertyville's kicker Ben Ratner followed with a touchdown-saving tackle at the end of Jackson Piggott's 57-yard kickoff return. The only score of the third quarter was Schambow's third TD pass to La Vista, this one for 16 yards. Ratner added a 22-yard field goal in the fourth to make it 29-7.

Lake Zurich's Alex Pirrone finished with 124 rushing yards on 15 carries.

"Defense came out, played their tails off," Lake Zurich coach Ron Planz said. "Offensively, I thought we had some chances. We had some runs we were inches away from breaking, had some passes we were inches away from catching. I'm proud of the way our guys battled the entire game regardless of what was on that scoreboard."